contemporary american music

Going Down Memory Lane

In browsing and weeding out my photo archive of some 25,000 shots – the first 10,000 of which are mostly training shots – I came across these images of Contemporary Jazz trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach, which I took on March 25th, 2007. I had strolled around Granville Island on a cold, but sunny Sunday late morning during my stay in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I had meant to migrate to this beautiful city back then and taken 4 weeks of unpaid leave in order to check it out in person and in order to live ‘test drive’ life and living there. People had told me about Granville Island, which is one of the major tourist attractions of downtown Vancouver. As I walked along the main esplanade, I came around a corner not far from where the aquabusses connecting other parts of Vancouver land and launch from. A nice little café with panoramic windows faced the little houseboats sitting near the docks and I could hear live music from within. So I went to check it out and sure enough: A band was playing Smooth and Contemporary Jazz for people who had gathered over brunch or an early Sunday lunch. I had my camera with me at all times and after having introduced myself I asked the band leader, whether it was o.k. to take a few pictures of the band. I ordered a coffee, we exchanged emails and the funny thing is that it wasn’t until later that I learnt of Gabriel Mark Hasselbach being one of the major names in Smooth Jazz.

As my gear is fairly limited, the pictures didn’t turn out well in the beginning. But after some advice from photographer friends on Facebook last night, I managed to process some of the shots so that the faces become better visible. Without any further ado: Hope, you’ll enjoy those close up photographs of Gabriel Mark Hasselbach and his band.🙂